Yes, I think you should. But if you want the best deal, I think you should wait 2 or 3 weeks for the price of the 580 to hopefully drop.

Of course, because the 6970 is another 2900 saga* it doesn't provide much competition for the 580, so one won't see the significant price drop that one hoped for, but you might see some.

This power usage limitation is really hampering the progress of video performance. I mean look, the GTX 580 is a lot faster than the GTX 285, but not really that much considering how old the 285, or even the 280 is. The weak competition from AMD is really proving this point.

*Performance is meh compared to a card that came out 7 months ago.

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While what you said is completely accurate, I think your view on it sounds more "glass is half empty" then "glass is half full" on this. Cayman is to Cypress as R360 was to R300. Cypress really did do positive things for AMD's image in Dx11, the same way R300 did for ATI in Dx9. Cayman/R360 only improves on that already solid product, so never should have been expected to be more then a refresh on the same scale of comparing a 9700 Pro to a 9800XT.

In that same light, Nvidia suffered a partial return of the Nv30 blues with Fermi, late, hot, and WAY cut down from intended product. GTX 580 is to GTX 480 as 5950 Ultra was to 5800 Ultra. Far closer to what Nvidia originally intended with the initial product. This all played out as a strongly similar repeat of history.

The only difference is that the refresh from both wern't quite as closely matched this time, Nvidia was better able to gain more from the refresh then AMD. Nvidia had already cut stuff out out of GF100 that GF110 could add back in. AMD needed to cut stuff out to make more room (VLIW5 to VLIW4) to accomplish the same. In the end, this time, Nvidia wasn't bitten as badly by the "Nv30 blues" as last time, and recovered from it better. AMD benefited the same from Cypress as ATI did from R300, but had less to work with to squeeze more performance out for the refresh.

That's a nice looking block, and at an excellent price, does it perform as good as it looks? I am considering to water cool my GTX580, and was thinking to go with Danger Den's block, but it's $159, is it better performance-wise than the EK block? I intend to build a custom loop to cool an i7-950 and the GTX580 (and this is would be my first water cooling loop so please bear with me), what single radiator will be sufficient in your opinion? 3x120mm (360mm) is enough? what pump, reservoir, fittings (I'm going with 1/2" most probably) do you recommend?

That's a nice looking block, and at an excellent price, does it perform as good as it looks? I am considering to water cool my GTX580, and was thinking to go with Danger Den's block, but it's $159, is it better performance-wise than the EK block? I intend to build a custom loop to cool an i7-950 and the GTX580 (and this is would be my first water cooling loop so please bear with me), what single radiator will be sufficient in your opinion? 3x120mm (360mm) is enough? what pump, reservoir, fittings (I'm going with 1/2" most probably) do you recommend?

The 360MM would be good enough to cool the I7 950 overclocked....but you'll need at least a 2x120 for the gpu alone....overclocked and pushed....the GTX 580 will put out some HEAT.....she's beautiful though.

I run a 240mm and a 120mm for my overclocked I7 920 @ 4.2ghz and keeps it cool enough for me.

That's a nice looking block, and at an excellent price, does it perform as good as it looks? I am considering to water cool my GTX580, and was thinking to go with Danger Den's block, but it's $159, is it better performance-wise than the EK block? I intend to build a custom loop to cool an i7-950 and the GTX580 (and this is would be my first water cooling loop so please bear with me), what single radiator will be sufficient in your opinion? 3x120mm (360mm) is enough? what pump, reservoir, fittings (I'm going with 1/2" most probably) do you recommend?

Big reason why I picked that water block is because it matches my motherboard chipset block. 3x120 radiator will suit just fine, XSPC makes a thicker triple rad that is generally priced a bit less than the competition. I really like my MCP 355 pump + XSPC resevoir top combo as it takes and extra step of routing tubing out of the picture. Honestly, 1/2" or 3/8" isn't going to make that much of a difference, I prefer 1/2" for no real reason. I also like Fesser tubing as it isn't too stiff.

... but I'm not going to overclock either the CPU nor the GPU, I just want them to stay coool and serve me for a looooooooong time, since I have no intention to upgrade either for the upcoming 3-4 years ... one last question, how often am I supposed to service (or conduct preventive maintenance for) the water cooling loop? ... will the seals or tubes deteriorate over time? should I worry from leaks? ...

... but I'm not going to overclock either the CPU nor the GPU, I just want them to stay coool and serve me for a looooooooong time, since I have no intention to upgrade either for the upcoming 3-4 years ... one last question, how often am I supposed to service (or conduct preventive maintenance for) the water cooling loop? ... will the seals or tubes deteriorate over time? should I worry from leaks? ...

I have a GTX 580 slightly overclocked to 797 MHz. The performance is only slightly superior to a GTX480 and an overclocked GTX480 can perform as well as a GTX580.

On the other hand, the GTX 570 costs significantly less money than the 480 or 580, uses less power, draws less heat, and has roughly the same performance as the 480.

The GTX580 is not the card to be getting excited about. In fact, in hindsight it was a bit of a rip-off. The GTX 570 not only delivers similar performance, but has forced the price of the 470 and 460 down.